Testing, testing; British F3 is ready to go!

The 2019 British F3 season gears up with a full test and media day at Donnington Park.

A cold but crisp day greeted the F3 desk for the first real bit of business in the British F3 2019 season. Much like the first day back at school, once we’d remember how to write the date, we were up and running taking in three 50-minute test sessions.

Like last year British F3 will be sharing the calendar with British GT and likewise the day was shared with them.

A few familiar faces return for the 2019 season, Clement Novalak and Aryton Simmons return to take part in their first full season having played bit parts last year, as does Hampus Ericsson. Pavan Ravishankar, Manuel Maldonado, Sasakorn Chaimongkol and Josh Mason all return for another crack of the whip.

Rookies this year, or certainly not rookies as the new crop all come from excellent racing backgrounds, are Swede Lucas Peterson and American Kaylen Frederick for Carlin. Fellow American Neil Verhagen, who certainly wins the award for best livery with a beautiful stars and stripes livery takes up his seat with Double R

Brit Kiern Jewiss, Danish racer Benjamin Pedersen and Belgium racer Ulysse De Pauw take up their seats with Douglas Motorsport.

Finally, the third of our American contingent, Kris Wright along with Brit Johnathan Hoggard take up their seats with Fortec. It was a busy pit lane as the sessions took shape.

Image Credit: Ian Page

Session one saw new comer Hoggard top the time sheet with Chaimongkol and Ericsson in second and third.

As midday arrived the F3 desk was treated to lunch at Garage 39 along with a press conference and the big announcement was that for the 2019 season, British F3 will stream online which is great news for fans.

Session two saw Charmongkol top the time sheet with Simmons and Maldonado close behind. The final session of the day saw Hoggard, Maldonado and Simmons heading up the times.

Image Credit: Ian Page

Collectively across all three sessions it was Hoggard, Maldonado and Simmons who topped the time sheet, Hoggard putting in the fast lap in an F3 car at Donnington with 1.23.993.

On his day testing Hoggard said; “I was a bit unfortunate with the second session but we were fast in the first session and faster in the third session. A bit of a messy day in the middle but I kept my head and I was able to produce the lap times.

“I get on really well with this car already and I’ve driven Donington plenty of times in F4 and got on well with the track well, and a combination of the two has produced today’s pace. I’m looking forward to the upcoming tests and we’re back in action again on Thursday here and then visits to Snetterton and Spa before the first round at Oulton.”

Whether these three guys are at the top come the end of the season only time will tell…

With the day drawing to an end all the was left was to head home ready for the start of the season at Oulton Park on the 20th April.

As always Overtake will be there to bring you all the weekend action, see you there!